PROBABLY HYDERABAD, MUGHAL INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

This ornament (turra) would have been worn at the side of a turban, hanging down past the ear - probably as part of a set with a sarpech mounted at the front. A similar example to that offered here, with rosette terminal and suspended pearls, is published in Thomas Holbein Hendley, Indian Jewellery, re-printed and updated by Waltraud Ganguly, Delhi, 2009, pl.3A.

For a contemporary photograph of a turra being worn by Sir Prabhu Narayan Singh Bahadur, the Maharaja of Benares (1855-1931) see Usha R Bala Kirshnan and Meera Sushil Kumar, Dance of the Peacock. Jewellery Traditions of India, Mumbai, 2010, no.423, p.312.